This invention relates to a disposable pull-on diaper provided with tape fasteners, which tape fasteners are used to fasten the used diaper in rolled up state for its disposal.
Japanese Patent Application Publications Nos. 1997-253123A and 1997-253124A describe a disposable pull-on diaper comprising a liquid-pervious topsheet, a liquid-impervious backsheet and a liquid-absorbent core disposed between these two sheets so as to configure front and rear waist regions opposed to each other and a crotch region extending between these waist regions. In the rear waist region, tape fastener(s) is(are) attached to the outer surface of the backsheet so that the used diaper may be fastened in a rolled-up state for its disposal.
In the diaper described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 1997-253123A, the tape fastener is formed with a single tape strip extending in a waist-surrounding direction and bonded at the middle zone in its longitudinal direction to the diaper. The remaining right and left side portions of the tape strip are folded up so that these portions may be unfolded rightward and leftward in the waist-surrounding direction. The right and left side portions are formed with pressure-sensitive adhesive zones serving to hold these portions in their folded-up state.
In the diaper described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 1997-253124A, the tape fasteners are formed with a pair of adhesive tape strips extending in parallel to each other in the waist-surrounding direction and vertically spaced apart from each other.
For disposal of such diaper disclosed in the Publications after use, the diaper is rolled up from the opposite side edges in a transverse direction toward the tape fastener(s) and then the tape fastener(s) is (are) wound round the diaper in the vicinity of its middle zone and anchored on the outer surface of the backsheet by means of pressure-sensitive adhesive. The rolled-up diaper is fastened in this manner and held in the rolled-up state.
The prior art diaper disclosed in the above Publications requires its user to roll up the diaper from both of its side edges toward the tape fastener(s) and then wind the tape fastener(s) around the rolled-up diaper. Consequently, much time and labor are required for the operation of rolling up the diaper and for the operation of winding the tape fastener(s) around this rolled-up diaper. In addition, it is impossible for such prior art diaper to close the waist-opening using the tape fasteners and there is always an anxiety that excretion and/or its odor might leak from the waist-opening.
It is an object of this invention to provide a disposable pull-on diaper that is adapted to be easily rolled up and fastened in such a rolled-up state for its disposal after use without any likelihood that excretion and/or its odor might leak from the waist-opening and/or the pair of leg-openings.
According to this invention, there is provided a disposable pull-on diaper comprising first and second waist regions opposed to each other and a crotch region extending between these waist regions so that the first and second waist regions are connected together in the vicinity of transversely opposite side edges thereof to define a waist-opening and a pair of leg-openings. A pair of tape fasteners adapted to fasten the diaper in its rolled-up state are attached to an outer surface of the diaper. The tape fasteners are formed on inner surfaces thereof that are opposed to the outer surface of the diaper with anchoring means.
The tape fasteners are provided in the vicinity of the transversely opposite side edges of one of the first and second waist regions so as to extend in a longitudinal direction in parallel to the transversely opposite side edges. The tape fasteners respectively have upper end portions which lie adjacent the waist-opening and lower end portions which lie adjacent the leg-openings. The upper end portions of the tape fasteners are bonded to the diaper by means of bonding zones that are located in the vicinity of a peripheral edge of the waist-opening, and the bonding zones extend obliquely inward in the waist-surrounding direction from the transversely opposite side edges toward the lower end portions of the tape fasteners.
According to one embodiment of this invention, the upper end portions of each of the tape fasteners lie inward in the waist-surrounding direction with respect to the lower end portions of each of the tape fasteners which obliquely extend from their upper end portions toward their lower end portions so as to be progressively more spaced apart from each other.
According to another embodiment of this invention, an elastically stretchable member associated with the waist-opening extending in the waist-surrounding direction is attached under tension to the peripheral edge portion of the waist-opening and the bonding zones overlap at least a part of the elastically stretchable member associated with the waist-opening.
According to still another embodiment of this invention, the anchoring means are formed of pressure-sensitive adhesive agents or hooked members that are applied on the tape fasteners, or and release sheets that are adapted for temporarily retaining the tape fasteners are attached to the outer surface of the diaper in the vicinity of the transversely opposite side edges.